Exploring storm morphology, dynamics and lightning characteristics during the lifecycle of a multicell cluster in a field campaign using a 3D visualization tool

Abstract:

The GOES-R Post Launch Test (PLT) was a field campaign designated to test and validate the accuracy of the GOES-R Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) and Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) via concerted airborne, ground based and satellite measurements of atmospheric parameters in thunderstorm events during the 2017 springtime. Taking advantage of the concerted measurement efforts, we are able to reconstruct 1) storm morphology and temperature profile from the Cloud Physics Lidar (CPL) onboard the NASA ER-2; 2) convective dynamics from the Cloud Radar System (CRS), which is a W-band Doppler radar at 3 mm wavelength, also aboard the ER-2; 3) lightning polarity, altitude, intensity and activities from ground-based Lightning Mapping Arrays (LMAs) and the GLM; and 4) deep convection cores (cells) inferred from the ABI IR channel (at 10.3 μm) detected cloud top temperature, for deep convective events. These observations are viewable in the web-based 3D visualization tool, the Field Campaign eXplorer (FCX), developed at the NASA Global Hydrology Resource Center (GHRC). We further explore the evolution of the storm microphysics and dynamics and lightning characteristics of a multicell cluster embedded in a frontal system that swept across the central and southern Great Plains on a late spring night using this animation tool. Relationships are drawn between microphysics, dynamics and lightning characteristics during storm evolution from the exploration.

The technical aspect of the open source 3D visualization tool is covered by another presentation, Using Field Campaign Explorer (FCX) to Enable Interactive Data Visualization for Earth Science Communities, at this conference.